The Lure
by DevinM26
Summary: One-Shot set during XY. When Ash loses a special memento from an old friend, he goes to some extreme lengths to get it back. PokéShipping implied, one-sided ArmourShipping.


As Serena opened her eyes, she recoiled in slight pain when the light hit her freshly opened pupils. Lying still for a few moments, she tenderly rubbed her eyelids and waited a moment before opening them again, but when she did the light had lost its burning touch. Rising out of her sleeping bag and running her hands through her long hair to straighten it, Serena looked down and saw both Clemont and Bonnie, the latter holding Dedenne in her arms, were still fast asleep. The sun had risen though, so it was likely they would wake up soon.

However, when Serena noticed Ash's sleeping bag conspicuously empty, worry came over her until she spotted the image of the young trainer standing near the pond they had chosen to camp out by. Pikachu was, as always, on the right shoulder of his best friend, while Ash was holding a fishing rod in both hands.

Serena decided that she might as well go talk to him, since he was probably the only human being awake for miles around. Besides, she thought, who knows where the conversation might go from there.

"Ash," Serena called out, drawing the attention of both Ash and Pikachu away from the water. "When did you get up?"

"I don't know," he replied, shrugging. "Maybe an hour ago? I figured I'd try fishing to help me fall back asleep."

Ash wasn't kidding; everyone always told him that patience wasn't his strong suit, and that became obvious whenever he tried his hand at fishing. You'd sometimes have to wait hours for something to take the bait, if you got any at all, and that was a huge "if." Ash just didn't see it as an effective way of catching Pokémon, but as a way of wearing himself down until he was tired enough to fall to the ground, it did its job.

"Any bites?" Serena inquired.

"Nope, but I'm also not ready to quit y-"

Then, Ash suddenly felt a tug on the line. It wasn't a particularly strong tug either, so Ash began to feel confident that he could reel this one in. Pulling back on the line, Ash struggled as Serena looked on; this may be a bit more difficult than he had thought.

"Pika Pika!" Pikachu exclaimed in support of his trainer, who was grating his teeth together in frustration.

"Come on," Ash groaned through his closed teeth. "You can't be that strong."

Ash was immediately proven wrong, as the fishing line snapped, sending him tumbling to the ground near Serena's feet. As she knelt down and looked over him with concern, Ash groaned, in a bit of pain from hitting his head on the ground. He recovered quickly enough, and once he realized what had just happened, his eyes went wide and his jaw fell open as he shot straight up.

"NO!" he yelled, waking Clemont and Bonnie while Serena gasped in confusion.

"Ash, what's wrong?"

He either didn't hear Serena's question or didn't have the time to answer it, because he shot forward towards the pond.

"Ash, wait!" Serena called out.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu exclaimed.

"What's going on?" Clemont asked, rubbing the lenses of his glasses together while he marched over to Serena and Pikachu. He had full vision just in time to see Ash dive headfirst into the pond, a sight which caused him immediate distress.

"What's Ash doing?!"

"I don't know," Serena responded, clearly nervous. "He was fishing and then the line broke, but I don't know why he just jumped in like that."

The pond's surface was promptly breached when something was thrown into the air; the object in question, which landed just in front of Serena, Clemont, and Pikachu, turned out to be a soaked Ash. Something else jumped out the water once Ash had landed, and this object likewise landed near them; it was a small, crustacean Pokémon with a bright red exoskeleton and two, oval-shaped pincers. In its left pincer, it held a small, human-shaped figurine with a hook at the end.

At the sight of the Pokémon, Serena pulled out her Pokédex and scanned it.

"**Corphish: The Ruffian Pokémon. ****Its hardy vitality enables it to adapt to any environment. Its pincers will never release prey."**

"Sounds tough," Clemont commented.

"Yeah, but don't worry," Serena reassured him. "Ash has got this… I hope."

Ash stood up, staring down at the Corphish that had ripped his fishing line, flung him the water, and was now challenging him to a battle while holding the thing he wanted back.

"Pika Pika!" Pikachu yelled as he jumped in front of Ash, sparks flying from his cheeks as he stared down the Corphish. Smiling at his best buddy's readiness, Ash then decided to give him some back-up.

"Frogadier, I choose you!" Ash said as he threw a Pokéball, which opened in a flash of light to reveal a blue, nimbly built amphibian Pokémon that landed beside Pikachu. Frogadier instantly took a battle-ready stance, while the Corphish narrowed its eyes in the direction of its new opponents. A glean surged across the Corphish's shell, a move which Ash recognized as Harden. Not wanting to give his opponent any more prep time, Ash commenced the battle.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt! Frogadier, use Water Pulse!"

"Pikachuuuuuuuuu!" the Electric-Type yelled as a bolt of electricity shot from him towards the Corphish.

"Frog!" the Water-Type exclaimed as he jumped and a blue orb formed between his hands. As Frogadier threw the Water Pulse, the Corphish responded by dodging the Thunderbolt and firing a Bubblebeam attack from its pincers. The attack collided with the Water Pulse in mid-air, creating a ball of smoke but leaving the Corphish unharmed. It's rage exacerbated, the Corphish charged forward, its glowing pincers indicating that it was about to use a Crabhammer attack.

"Quick, both of you, dodge!"

Pikachu and Frogadier jumped in opposite directions, both narrowly avoiding being hit by the Corphish as it swung its pincers. Ash, realizing a direct attack wasn't going to work, decided to try something different.

"Frogadier, use Double Team!"

As Frogadier landed, several copies of it appeared across the battlefield, surrounding Corphish. The crustacean-Pokémon looked around in confusion, and Ash knew he had an opening.

"Alright Frogadier, now use Aerial Ace."

All the Frogadier then charged at the Corphish, their fists glowing as white streaks of light flowed behind them. Panicking, the Corphish shot a Bubblebeam in all directions, destroying the Double Team clones until all that remained was the genuine article. By then it was too late, however, and Frogadier slammed both his hands down on Corphish. The Corphish was left in a daze as Frogadier calmly landed in front of it.

"Pikachu, follow that up with Thunderbolt!"

"Piiiii-kaaaaaa-chuuuuuuuu" the Electric-Type bellowed as he generated a huge beam of electricity that shot heavenward and arched, eventually crashing down into the Corphish.

"Cooorphish!" the Water-Type yelled in pain, continuing even after Pikachu had ended his attack.

"Alright-Frogadier, grab that lure in Corphish's pincer, then Pikachu, you knock it back into the pond with Iron Tail!" Ash ordered, causing both Pokémon to jump towards the Corphish. Pikachu's Thunderbolt had clearly hit the Water-Type hard, as it offered no resistance when Frogadier ripped the lure from its Pincer.

As Frogadier dove out of the way, Pikachu slammed his tail, aglow with white light, into the Corphish's side. The attack was so strong that the Ruffian Pokémon was propelled through the air, landing on the surface of the pond and disappearing beneath the water with a splash.

"Wow, that was a tough one," Clemont commented as Frogadier hopped over to Ash and dropped the lure in the palm of his trainer's right hand. Ash stared down at the lure, making sure nothing had happened to it, before responding.

"If you think that one was tough, you should see my Corphish back home in Pallet Town."

"Oh wow, Ash," Clemont remarked. "I didn't know you had a Corphish."

Ash smiled, thinking of all this Pokèmon back home and how they're still working their hardest to become stronger even without him there. Ash's swell of pride was quickly deflated, however.

"What's going on?" Bonnie yelled, running over with Dedenne in hand. Serena turned to Ash, put her hands on her hips, and made a face that reminded Ash of the ones his mom would make whenever he did something dangerous as a kid.

"Ash jumped into the pond and got in a fist-fight with a Corphish over a fishing lure."

"Oh," Bonnie replied. "I bet Pikachu and Frogadier kicked its butt!"

Both of the Pokémon smiled slightly at the praise thrown their way, but their trainer wasn't so happy.

"Hey, this isn't just any fishing lure," he retorted, holding it out between the tips of his index and middle fingers for everyone else to see. As the rest of the group leaned in, they saw the lure was made in the shape of a girl; whoever the model for the lure was, she had orange-red hair, sea-green eyes, and was wearing a yellow tank-top with suspenders and denim shorts.

"Misty would kill me if I lost this."

Ash then pulled the lure back and stuffed it in his pocket, making sure no-else, human or Pokèmon could snatch it away from him, while all his friends looked on with blank stares. Serena, who didn't like the sound of what Ash had just said one bit, spoke up first.

"Who-whose Misty?" she nervously asked.

Ash blinked in confusion for a few seconds, before facepalming.

"I can't believe that I haven't told you guys about her."

Pikachu, aware more than anyone of how forgetful his best friend could be, sighed in second-hand embarrassment.

"She's an old friend of mine who used to travel with me. She's an awesome trainer, and she's working on fulfilling her dream of becoming a Water Pokémon master," Ash explained, Serena feeling a bit of relief that Ash specifically used the word "friend" to describe Misty.

"Now she's the Cerulean Gym leader back home in Kanto, so she can't really come with me on my journeys anymore," Ash continued, pulling the lure out of his pocket and gazing at its visage. "But we still find ways to stay in touch."

"Is she your girlfriend?!" Bonnie eagerly asked, causing Serena to tense up and close her eyes as if trying to cut off her senses so we wouldn't hear the answer.

"Uh...I guess," Ash answered. "I mean, she's a girl and she's my friend."

Serena, not knowing how much more she could take, decided that she would just have to spell it out for Ash.

"But is she more than that? Like, are you guys...dating?"

"Huh?" was Ash's only reply to that. He admittedly didn't know much about relationships and had never given them much thought, so he wasn't sure how to answer this question.

He definitely liked Misty, and that was why two people dated each other right? Because they liked each other. Plus, when they were still traveling together, Brock and Tracey would always say that the two of them liked each other, and other people would sometimes think that she was his girlfriend. Though now that he thought about it, people would sometimes think that about May and Dawn too, and he was pretty sure that neither of them felt that way about him.

On the other hand, Ash knew that Misty had gotten jealous when they met Melody in the Orange Islands, and when Bianca or Latias (he still didn't know which one it was) kissed him, and when Macey started acting weird during the Johto League. But still, he'd never thought that Misty really saw him like that. The two of them argued way too much, and that's not something you're supposed to do with someone you're dating, right?

"Umm...no. We're not," Ash finally said, relatively confident in his answer.

Serena breathed a sigh of relief and put her hand over her heart, while Bonnie winked in her direction.

"Well, since we're all up," Clemont said, steering the conversation in a different direction, "We might as well have breakfast."

Bonnie smiled as she followed her big brother back to the campsite, with Serena giving a parting glance to Ash before joining them.

Usually, Ash was the first to go for the food, but he wanted to stand alone with his thoughts for a few minutes. It had been a while since he'd seen Misty in person, even if he wrote her e-mails and took video phone calls with her whenever he got the chance. Maybe it was time the two of them to get together again.

"Pikachu," Ash asked, looking down at his best friend. "When we get home to Kanto, wanna give Misty a visit?"

"Pika Pikachupi!" was his excited response, and Ash could tell that he was interested.

"And Frogadier, I know she'll get a kick out of you!" Ash said.

"Froga!" the Water-type exclaimed.

And with that, Ash and his two Pokèmon ran back towards their friends, eager to put some breakfast in their stomachs before getting on the road again.


End file.
